Mark Diacono

I’m lucky enough to spend most of my time eating, growing, writing and talking about food.

At my smallholding, Otter Farm, I grow unusual and forgotten food along with the best of the familiar. There are dwarf kiwis, sweet cicely, chocolate vines, Japanese wineberries and Vietnamese coriander, orchards of pecans, quince, almonds, Szechuan pepper and apricots, as well as a forest garden, a vineyard and a perennial garden.

I have written four award winning books, including A Taste of the Unexpected which won the Guild of Food Writers’ Food Book of the Year 2011. The photographs here and in my books and articles are taken by me, unless I’m in them, in which case you can blame Jason Ingram.

I used to be very idle, an environmental consultant, at River Cottage, though not necessarily in that order.